Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Soul Retrieval

By Tai Carmen

“Why do we describe a distraught person as being ‘beside himself’?
Because the ancients believed that soul and body could part, and that
under great emotional stress the soul would actually leave the body.
When this happened a person was ‘beside himself.’” ~ Dictionary of Word Origins“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” ~ Jesus(Matthew 16:26)

Part I

Our language is rife with references to what has traditionally been
described by shamanic cultures as ‘soul loss’ — “Nobody’s home,” we
might say of an empty-eyed co-worker. Or, in a funk ourselves: “I feel
like a part of me is missing.” Popular songs site it casually — I don’t know where my soul is / I don’t know where my home is (Nelly Furtado, “I’m Like A Bird”).

Yet, these expressions are so common, we often use them as descriptors without fully investigating their implication.

“Few of us live as fully as we could. When we become aware of this,
we want to recover the intensity of life, and the intimacy, that we once
enjoyed…We want to come home more fully to ourselves and to the people
we love.”

Many turn to the shamanic arts for language and methodology which address our collective angst with a soulfulness lacking in modern lexicon.

“The re-emergence in the late twentieth century of shamanism — with its lively and concrete notion of soul — seems to be a response to a very depressing cultural reality,” notes Jungian analystJohn Ryan Haule. ”In
the past six or seven hundred years we have undergone a
consciousness-shift of 180 degrees. Formerly soul was our primary
reality. Now we have only a body and a rational ego.

“The material conditions of our lives have improved immeasurably, but
we’ve lost the imaginal and transcendent scope that belongs to the
reality of soul. In a situation like this, it is often the depressives
among us who are the most realistic regarding the impoverishment of our
human existence.” (“Depression & Soul-Loss.”)

According to modern writers on the ancient subject, soul loss
accounts for depression, anxiety, a sense of alienation, incompleteness
and disconnection, a feeling of being “spaced out,” or “sleepwalking”
through life. Extreme cases include coma, psychosis, fugue states and dissociative identity disorders.

Interestingly, the concept that a vital aspect of the self flees or
retreats during experiences of extreme pain or disturbance is an idea
shared by shamanism and psychotherapy alike. Psychotherapy calls it “disassociation,” shamanism calls it “soul loss.” The purpose in both cases is self-protection.

Modern shamanic healers explain that we all lose bits and pieces of our soul, or vital essence, as we go through life.

The cause doesn’t have to be something as monumental as an accident
or as extreme as abuse. It can be as simple as a small child’s
sensitivity to her parents’ psychic tension or continued arguing. Little
by little, parts of ourselves withdraw and become seemingly lost to us.

Rejected elements of the personality are banished from conscious awareness — Jung’s concept of the psyche’s ”Shadow” aspect. This
is done unconsciously, to ease the cognitive dissonance of harboring
seemingly conflicting or ambiguous feelings; what modern psychology
calls “compartmentalization” and repression.

Denied aspects — such as repressed sadness, anger, inner child or
libidinous impulses — are effectively exiled. But they do not disappear.
They continue to exist “underground,” as it were, in the subterranean
caves of the psyche, causing emotional alienation, discomfort and
disconnection from self.
The good news is that excavation of these buried aspects — and a
renewal of their accompanying vital forces — is always possible, and
the focus of psychotherapy and shamanic healing alike.

The most common approach of neo-shamans is to echo the ancient model
of shaman-as-guide in the netherworlds of psyche/non-ordinary reality.
As pioneering anthropologist Mircea Eliade wrote in his now classic text “Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy”:

“Only the shaman can undertake a cure of this kind. For only he
‘sees’ the spirits and knows how to exorcise them; only he recognizes
that the soul has fled, and is able to overtake it, in ecstasy, and
return it to its body….Everything that concerns the soul and its
adventure, here on earth and in the beyond, is the exclusive province of
the shaman.”

However! A fascinating synthesis between psychotherapy and shamanic
soul retrieval has been in the works over the past several decades.

“Upon his return from studying with teachers in India, Australia, and South America, shaman Ross Bishop transformed
the Soul Retrieval process into a method that could be embraced by the
Western mind and heart by making a simple shift in the roles of Shaman
and client,” relates psychotherapist, author and soul retrieval
practitioner Selena Whittle.

“In this contemporary method of Soul Retrieval, the essential
elements of the process are the same. There is a shamanic journey into
the inner world where the wounded part of the self is identified, healed
and brought back; however, the client does the work and is guided by the Shaman. The client takes the shamanic journey. The client identifies the part of the self that is wounded. The client builds a relationship with that part of the self, heals it, then brings it back for integration.

“The Shaman guides the client every step of the way, helping the
client navigate the internal world of the psyche, guiding the client in
the potent words or actions that are needed to build the relationship
with the fragmented aspect of the self, to heal it and to bring it back.
The shamanic journey becomes a shared experience, the Soul Retrieval a
shared healing intervention.”

But let me initiate you right here and now into a simple yet profound
method, which you can practice in the comfort of your home.

Part II

1. Create your inner sanctum. This could be anything from an ornate temple to a
simple spot by a running brook. The important part is that the setting
has identifiable features, which can be recreated, and that the space
makes you feel empowered, centered, safe and calm. Mentally construct as
many details — sights, sounds and smells — as possible. Lie back, get
comfortable and spend some time really making your inner sanctuary come
to life behind closed eyes. (*The bath, with some low light, candles,
calming scents and salts, is an excellent place to do soul work.)

Friday, January 11, 2013

Death becomes important
only to those who neglected
their duty. When you are
one with the Creator, there
is no death, only transition.

Avoid even the shadow of a lie.
A house without a firm foundation
soon falls. The true word is the
bearer of the Light. The lie divides,
demolishes,. Violence destroys walls,
deception destroys relationships and
opens the door to the king of deceivers.
Guard that portal well.

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